Knowledge and Religion

What is your identity anyway?

Why do you look for a sign where there is no sign?

I’d like to continue this discussion on identity because it's confusing to many aspirants seeking their own self nature. That's because your identity is not objective. There is no sign that can confirm your identity; not even a state of health or a quiet mind. You have to know your freedom directly because you stand free of the limits that you see. When you experience this, it becomes obvious. But since it’s beyond your capacity to think about it, at first when you hear that you are Consciousness, it may seem incomprehensible.

The mind knows only opposites
However if you want a real adventure in life, go for self-knowledge. Since your mind is incapable of predicting the results of self-knowledge, at each turn, life becomes fresh and new. As for the mind, it can only grasp things that have opposites. You know a good vacation in relation to a bad one, a good day in comparison to a bad one, a small car in relation to a big one. You only know a huge mosquito by comparing it to a small one, and a high mountain in relationship to a foothill. You know sleep by wakefulness and even life by comparison to death.

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Give the gift of enlightenment when you give Making Your Wisdom Come Alive. This book points to the wisdom and joy that you find at your center. Here you can find the light that makes life shine in its full glory.

See our fully revised second edition.

For more information go to:Amazon.com

Also now you can read this book on your Kindle or other electronic device. Go to Amazon Kindle.
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The opposites listed above are all objects that you see; but how can there possibly be an opposite to Consciousness, which is the knower of the mind itself. Whether the object is a thought, your body, or a thing in the world, the only proof of consciousness is the fact that you are aware of that object.

Your experience is the real proof
However the word only is a misnomer. There is another proof of Consciousness. You know the nature of Consciousness by standing as Consciousness. By pulling your identity out of the things that you see and standing as the one thing that you are. This is what I call proof by direct experience. So to follow the path of self-knowledge, eliminate every object that you see, until you remain as the self-luminous Consciousness alone. You are the one homogeneous Awareness that lights up the world.

As for limiting identities, you often get to see them and hear them: I’m a mother or father, daughter or son; I am rich or poor, young or old, a doctor, teacher or writer; I’m five foot nine inches, 165 pound man.  Your identity also gets attached to your desires and fears too: I want a new car or house; I never want to see that person again.

Is the thought I really the subject?
When most people question the thoughts going through their mind, they assume that they know who the thinker is. By contrast, when it comes to self-knowledge we don’t care about the thoughts going through our mind. Rather we care about the assumptions that thoughts point to. The most basic of these assumptions is that you are the thinker. For instance when you think, I can’t do math, you assume that the I and the can’t both apply to you. Then you try to replace the I can’t with I can. This is the formula for creating a huge struggle; which one will win? The I can’t or the I can? 
 
But on the path of self knowledge you take a different approach: neither the I nor the can’t apply to you. Remember you are the seer of these thoughts, not the one stuck in them. So you can think these thoughts all you want. You just remain in your natural state of Awareness. Where before you felt limited by two possibilities, you now have open space.

So does this guarantee that you will be able to learn math, of course not. But what you will find is that things will start to happen outside the opposites that your mind conceives including I can and I can’t. I’m sure that you will agree, without struggling with your mind you will have a much better chance of understanding math.

Pull your identity out of the thought I and see what happens
As with I can and I can’t you can pull your identity out of other insidious thoughts that seem to speed through your mind such as: I’m depressed or I’m angry etc. If this is hard to understand, simply pull your identity out of the thought I and see what happens.

It is a pleasant surprise to find a clear space that was once cluttered by suffering. Although you won’t be able to predict the future, you will be very happy living in the present. And life will unfold like a wonderful present, just the way it’s supposed to. All this without having to control your mind. As a bonus you will know that you are the one harmonious Consciousness that's free from the notion of another; just like you always suspected, you are not a collection of thoughts and objects.

Asking Question
Here questions about this article or other things going on in your life are always welcome; you can write us at michael@ananya.com. I love questions and try to answer them all in this blog. That’s because when you start to question limitation, you are on the verge of destroying it.

Please Tell Your Friends
Please tell you friends. Although we don’t have an advertising budget, we hope that everyone who wants to can find out about and wake up to this wisdom.

Best Wishes,

Michael Gluckman

Albert Einstein and A theory of Everything

Einstein was looking for the general theory of relativity, a theory that includes everything in the universe both large and small. His general theory said that the laws of physics should be the same for any observer no matter what velocity and direction he or she is going in. In order to accomplish this he devised a theory where space and time would bend. So even if it seemed that an observer was not going in a straight line, relative to the space time continuum the observer was going straight.

Although he got his theory to work for large objects, it never quite worked for the smallest objects in the universe, including electrons, quarks, and neutrons. To Einstein these objects seemed to move in a random way that he could not accept.  And thus his famous statement, God does not play dice with the universe. Einstein died before he could devise a theory of everything that worked for both large and small objects.

So what is the nature of the observer?
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Give the gift of enlightenment to yourself and to others when you get Making Your Wisdom Come Alive. This book points to the wisdom and joy that you find at your center. Here you can find the light that makes life shine in its full glory.

For more information go to: Amazon.com

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But the one thing that Einstein forgot to investigate was the nature of the observer herself. If he would have looked in this direction, he would have discovered some amazing things that would be right in line with his beliefs. When you look carefully, you can see that the thing that Einstein took to be the observer was just another moving object and not the observer at all.

But in order to clearly see what I am referring to you have to separate the observer from all the objects that he or she sees. This type of experimenting is called inner experimenting, and that means discovering what you really are. Since at first this may not be obvious, it is easy to mistake the observer for an object that is in motion, and that's how Einstein saw it.

The Keys to Your Palace

Did you know that you actually live in a palace; and yet we pretend to live in a shack as if we were just beggars? Today I want to give you the five keys that will unlock the door to your real home, so that you can enjoy its full expansiveness.

Have patience, for as you open each of these locks and go through each door, you will experience more and more freedom and less fear.
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Give the gift of enlightenment when you give Making Your Wisdom Come Alive. This book points to the wisdom and joy that you find at your center. Here you can find the light that makes life shine in its full glory.

See our fully revised second edition.

For more information go to:
Amazon.com

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First key: happiness comes from the place where you actually experience it, not from the things that you see. If you hope to find lasting happiness, you have to go to the place where it comes from. Since objects can’t give you what they don’t have, when you attempt to find happiness in an object, you will feel cheated. On the other hand, If you look for happiness in the place where you experience it, what seems to be a tender flame will grow into a raging fire of joy.

Second key, the body is just another object that you see; its limitations are not yours. If you stop mixing your identity up with physical limitations, you will find that your palace is much greater than the limits of the body.

Third key: like the body, the thoughts in your mind are just objects that you see; they do not define you. This proves that you identity is not limited by what you think. For this reason no matter how often you think, “I’m a purple kangaroo,” you will not become a purple kangaroo. Did you know that your palace is more expansive than your thinking could ever capture? 

Forth key: the world that is commonly thought to be out there, turns out to be in here. You discover this by noticing where you actually experience the world. If the world was really out there and you were over here, there would be no way to actually sense the world. So the world has to be in here. Therefore you are not located as if in a room, separated from the world. Rather the world is in you. Did you know that your palace contains the whole world? 

Fifth key: that little thought “I”, is the hook that seems to connect us with limitation. The thought “I” is just another object that you see. It is not you and you are not limited by it. Our palace is greater than the “I” thought too.

Finally when you no longer mix yourself up with the limitations that you see, you will return to the palace that is your birthright, and take your rightful place as king or queen of the universe. Do you know what you will discover? This is the palace that you never really left; it is made of your Consciousness and Bliss. Standing here in your real home, you were never born and will never die.

Feel free to ask questions
The revised edition of Making Your Wisdom Come Alive, a book that provides a step by step approach so that you can find your natural freedom, is hot off the press. It also gives you plenty of inspiration for your practice. Because we are doing a publicity campaign, there is a good possibility that I will have some radio and TV interviews. So look for them, and if you are allowed to, call in and ask questions. Remember, inner development is for the curious and this may be your opportunity to practice curiosity. 

Now I want you to experience your true identity in its full glory. So please feel free to continue asking questions. I’m always glad to hear your reactions and clarify my answers. Unlike the path of faith, on the path of Self-Knowledge it is curiosity that destroys limitation and allows you to abide in your natural freedom.If the comment section of this blog doesn't work, please send your questions and comments to michael@ananya.com. To find out where this all leads go to, www.light-up-your-life.com. And finally, if you enjoy these blogs please tell your friend

                        Best Wishes for Your Practice,

                        Michael Gluckman

 

 

The Shortest Distance Between two Points

In grade school we learned that the shortest distance between two points is a straight line, right? But did you know that this question is like a shy lady. At first it seems like nothing much is there. But the deeper you delve into it, the more the universe reveals its deepest secrets.

For instance when Galileo discovered that the world was round things changed. Now we realized that shortest distance between two points was a curve. Of course at first the pope was disturbed and wanted to know how Galileo could pass such a law without his consent.  But fortunately because of the telescope, Galileo had proof. He could show the pope that this was a discovery and not just a figment of his imagination. So with a little luck he was able to escape with his head still above his body.

With Einstein did we revert to a straight line again? _____________________________________________________________________________________

Give the gift of enlightenment when you give Making Your Wisdom Come Alive. This book points to the wisdom and joy that you find at your center. Here you can find the light that makes life shine in its full glory.

See our fully revised second edition.

For more information go to:
Amazon.com

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But then Albert Einstein came along and he had a completely different take on the space that we live in. Einstein wanted to explain how the law of physics would apply to all viewers. So he defined the special law of relativity, which said that to any viewer moving at a constant speed, and in a constant direction, the laws of physics remain the same.

We all know this law very well. When the car crashes or the airplane hits an air pocket, stuff flies all over the place and the laws of physics seem to go haywire. But when we go at a constant velocity in a straight line, no matter how fast we are going, everything in our environment seems normal. So with the special law of relativity we are back to a straight line again.

What if the nature of time and space changed?
But Einstein wanted to find a law of physics that would hold for any viewer no matter how they were moving and changing direction. So he proposed that it was not the viewer that changed speed or direction, it was time and space that changed and moved in a curved. I’m going to have to leave the rest of this to your imagination. What is the shortest distance between two points in a universe where time and space are curved? I’m afraid this is where the theoretical and the observable diverge. 

However there is still hope for people who are not math geeks. That’s because Einstein never looked into the nature of the observer. The thing that he thought was the observer was just another object observed. For instance he must have defined the observer as a body in motion. right? But in the same way that the observer was aware of the changes in motion of the car and airplane, the observer was also aware of the changes in the motion of his or her body, right?

The key to knowing the universe is to know yourself
Fortunately, like a scientist, we can all explore the nature of the observer. That’s because we are the observer, not the objects that we see. As the seer, we are greater than any object that we see. We aren't even limited by the mind and body. Without limitation, the real observer is like space.  It is everything and nothing, both at the same time. It is the still point that sees the passing of time and space without changing in the least. Although it is not known by the mind, it is the place where we know the mind from.

So when you stand as the observer, what’s the shortest distance between two points? Since like space you are everywhere, there is no distance at all. When, as Einstein did, you mix yourself up with the objects that you see, it appears that you are framed by a body and mind and stuck in the events that the world presents to you. However, when you return to your original nature you become the reality that frames the universe. And as reality you stand at every single point in the universe, all at the same time. From here there is no distance between two points.

To end this blog I would like to quote a few verses from Isavasya Upanisad:

4) The one self, though never stirring, is swifter than the mind. The senses cannot reach It, for It moves ever in front. Though standing still, It overtakes others who are running.

5) It moves and moves not; It is far and likewise near. It is inside and it is also on the outside.

 

Feel free to ask questions
The revised edition of Making Your Wisdom Come Alive, a book that provides a step by step approach so that you can find your natural freedom, is hot off the press. It also gives you plenty of inspiration for your practice. Because we are doing a publicity campaign, there is a good possibility that I will have some radio and TV interviews. So look for them, and if you are allowed to, call in and ask questions. Remember, inner development is for the curious and this may be your opportunity to practice curiosity. 

Now I want you to experience your true identity in its full glory. So please feel free to continue asking questions. I’m always glad to hear your reactions and clarify my answers. Unlike the path of faith, on the path of Self-Knowledge it is curiosity that destroys limitation and allows you to abide in your natural freedom.If the comment section of this blog doesn't work, please send your questions and comments to michael@ananya.com. To find out where this all leads go to, www.light-up-your-life.com. And finally, if you enjoy these blogs please tell your friend

                        Best Wishes for Your Practice,

                        Michael Gluckman